ArticleNotes and records of the Royal Society of London2011
Ambiguous cells: the emergence of the stem cell concept in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Article in Notes and records of the Royal Society of London, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed.
- Stem cell revolution: bridging the gap between research and clinical application.Stem cell research & therapy · 2025Review
- Cell and tissue reprogramming: Unlocking a new era in medical drug discovery.Pharmacological reviews · 2025Review
- Deciphering the Complexities of Adult Human Steady State and Stress-Induced Hematopoiesis: Progress and Challenges.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Deciphering normal and cancer stem cell niches by spatial transcriptomics: opportunities and challenges.Genes & development · 2025Review
- Lung stem cells and respiratory epithelial chimerism in transplantation.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2025Review
- Species Choice and Model Use: Reviving Research on Human Development.Journal of the history of biology · 2024Article
- The evolutionary cancer gene network theory versus embryogenic hypotheses.Medical oncology (Northwood, London, England) · 2023Article
- Cancer Cell Culture: The Basics and Two-Dimensional Cultures.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2023Article
- 100 plus years of stem cell research-20 years of ISSCR.Stem cell reports · 2022Review
- Mutation or not, what directly establishes a neoplastic state, namely cellular immortality and autonomy, still remains unknown and should be prioritized in our research.Journal of Cancer · 2022Review
- Cycles and circulation: a theme in the history of biology and medicine.History and philosophy of the life sciences · 2021Article
- Chemokines orchestrate tumor cells and the microenvironment to achieve metastatic heterogeneity.Cancer metastasis reviews · 2021Review
- Evolutionary Cell Biology (ECB): Lessons, challenges, and opportunities for the integrative study of cell evolution.Journal of biosciences · 2021Article
- Stem Cells: A Historical Review about Biological, Religious, and Ethical Issues.Stem cells international · 2021Review
- Cancer Stem Cells and Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition in Cancer Metastasis.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine · 2020Review
- Unexpected encounter of the parasitic kind.World journal of stem cells · 2019Review
- On Mammalian Totipotency: What Is the Molecular Underpinning for the Totipotency of Zygote?Stem cells and development · 2019Review
- Shen-Jing as a Chinese Medicine Concept Might Be a Counterpart of Stem Cells in Regenerative Medicine.Chinese journal of integrative medicine · 2019Article
- Cancer Stem Cells: From Historical Roots to a New Perspective.Journal of oncology · 2019Review
- The dualistic origin of human tumors.Seminars in cancer biology · 2018Review
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1 author.
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Abstract
This paper elucidates the origins of scientific work on stem cells. From the late nineteenth century onwards, the notion of stem cells became customary in scientific communities of Imperial Germany. Adopting the term Stammzelle from Ernst Haeckel, Theodor Boveri was influential in introducing the concept in embryological studies and early genetics around 1900, describing a capacity of stem cells for self-renewal as well as differentiation. At the same time, blood stem cells were conceptualized by histologists such as Ernst Neumann and Artur Pappenheim in studies of physiological haematopoiesis and various forms of leukaemia. Furthermore, building on Julius Cohnheim's theory that tumours arise from 'embryonic remnants' in the adult body, pathologists aimed at identifying the cells of origin, particularly in the embryo-like teratomas. Embryonic stem cells thus assumed an ambiguous status, partly representing common heritage and normal development, and partly being seen as potential causes of cancer if they had been left behind or displaced during ontogeny. In the 1950s and 1960s experimental research on teratocarcinomas by Leroy Stevens and Barry Pierce in the USA brought together the strands of embryological and pathological work. Alongside the work of Ernest McCulloch and James Till at the Ontario Cancer Institute from the early 1960s on stem cells in haematopoiesis, this led into the beginnings of modern stem cell research.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.